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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26506486">A Place in Between</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrastBannert/pseuds/KrastBannert'>KrastBannert</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>We Will Become Silhouettes [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern with Bending (Avatar), F/M, Fluff, Junkspaces, Light Angst, Reunions, Running Away, i guess?</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 13:33:48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,060</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26506486</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrastBannert/pseuds/KrastBannert</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>[She’s sad, she’s so heart-wrenchingly sad but she doesn’t even know what there is for her to be sad about.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>She's never been here before, she knows, but somehow she knows this place. It's like something is missing, but she can't pin it down because it's something she's never had before. Or maybe, it's something she didn't know she had. Something she had forgotten, something she had lost. She’s not sure.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>It’s because she’s cut off, she knows. She’d once read an essay about this idea, about these places – but now that she’s here, that’s all pointless. Because, she thinks, that essay didn’t do them justice.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Because here…here is the place where one world blends into another. Here, reality is what you make it, a place where anything can happen.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Then, suddenly, anything becomes something.]</i>
</p><p>------</p><p>In a strange place in between places, after a long, long time, two people reunite.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Mai/Zuko (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>We Will Become Silhouettes [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2053002</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>57</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Place in Between</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She’s running.</p><p>She’s twenty, and she’s running.</p><p>She barely knows where she’s going, but she doesn't care. She just needs out. Out from under her parent’s thumb, from criminal enterprises and a pointless college degree and the high life, from this life that she doesn’t want, this life that’s crushing her.</p><p>She's leaving everything behind. Her life, her ‘friends’, her brother. She’s leaving her brother, and it tears her apart. She'll come back, she tells herself. For him. She will - she <em>has</em> to. He needs out, just like her, but she can't take him. Not yet.</p><p>She’d spent the day preparing: finalizing college credit transfers, putting her bank accounts in order, finishing her immigration paperwork. When her parents left the house, she’d grabbed her things, taken her brother to his babysitter's as was requested, and she’d run.</p><p>And now she’s here. She missed her train and she’s completely, utterly alone. The station is massive, and empty. Distant music from a 24/7 radio echoes eerily off the walls and tunnels, and it makes the hair on the back of her neck stand up.</p><p>It’s strange, though, because it’s not creepy, it’s not terrifying, it’s not <em>scary</em>. In a place so big, so empty, and so quiet, it’s…soothing. It’s like something she’s known before.</p><p>She's heard about places like this. Everyone has. But she’s never experienced this for herself. Not really.</p><p>She sits against a wall, listening to the gentle thud of rain on the window next to her as she gazes around.</p><p>People come here, she knows – the evidence is all around her. There’s forgotten posters and papers and flyers, bathed in neon light from signs on the concourse, covering the walls and pillars. There’s a bag lying forgotten against a wall, and there’s an empty coffee cup clinking against a beer bottle.</p><p>And yet, somehow, it’s like no one has been here in a thousand years.</p><p>If she didn’t know better, she could have sworn she were the only woman on earth.</p><p>She stands and turns to the window, stares at her ghostly reflection. She stares at her patchwork hoodie that’s two sizes too big, at her threadbare purse and backpack, at her ratty jeans and her Converse, at her freshly-cut, short hair and makeup-free face.</p><p>It’s odd, and her mother’s voice is whispering in the back of her mind, telling her to clean up, put on something <em>decent</em>, but she knows the truth. This is the <em>real</em> her. A completely different person from the good little girl her parents want her to be.</p><p>She can see city lights twinkle through her reflection, shining like a sea of stars through the raindrops. There’s a spear of lightning that throws the world into black and white, and the lights flicker as thunder crashes.</p><p>She’s stuck in this moment, and everything is <em>so</em> correct, so right, and yet she can’t help but feel like something is…<em>off</em>. It's like reality and time have faded, twisted, and frozen into something she can recognize, but it’s just a fraction of a shade of a sliver.</p><p>It makes her feel wistful. And somber. She’s sad, she’s so heart-wrenchingly sad but she doesn’t even know what there is for her to be sad about.</p><p>She's never been here before, she knows, but somehow she knows this place. It's like something is missing, but she can't pin it down because it's something she's never had before. Or maybe, it's something she didn't know she had. Something she had forgotten, something she had lost. She’s not sure.</p><p>It’s because she’s cut off, she knows. She’d once read an essay about this idea, about these places – but now that she’s here, that’s all pointless. Because, she thinks, that essay didn’t do them justice.</p><p>Because here…here is the place where one world blends into another. Here, reality is what you make it, a place where anything can happen.</p><p>Then, suddenly, <em>anything</em> becomes <em>something</em>.</p><p>She hears footsteps, thick and heavy, and when she peaks an eye out from under her hood, her heart stops. She has to pinch herself; the world <em>must</em> be playing a cruel prank on her because it’s been eight years since she’s last seen him. The boy she’d never forgotten, the one she’d waited for, for <em>so</em> long. Her childhood sweetheart.</p><p>It’s been eight years. Eight. Years. But even after all that time, she can still remember that time. The last time she’d been truly happy. Life had been so different, then. They'd been young and carefree and there wasn't a name they could put to what they had because they didn't – <em>couldn’t</em> – understand it.</p><p>He'd changed, but she knew that face. She knew <em>him</em>.</p><p>His thick black hair that dangles in front of his eyes, the way his mouth curves as he frowns down at his phone, the way his shoulders are held back, both anxious and proud, the way he shuffles slightly as he walks, hand jammed into the pocket of his jeans…</p><p>“Z-Zuko? She breathes.” Is that…is that you?”</p><p>She doesn't recognize herself, airy and timid and <em>terrified</em>, and she’s suddenly overwhelmed with fear that she’s gotten it wrong, that this is all her imagination. But as she’s tugging her hood down, his head jerks up and a pair of golden eyes flash with stunned recognition. His phone nearly falls out of his hand as his mouth drops open.</p><p>“Mai,” he whispers, her name leaving his lips like he’s seen a ghost. Her heart breaks and chips at the sound of his voice, awestruck and aghast and frightened, yet so, so hopeful.</p><p>They stand under the flickering lights, the rain rolling against the window, staring at each other amidst the detritus. Her mind goes blank, and then she’s running once again, but this time she’s throwing herself into his arms.</p><p>He catches her like she weighs nothing and folds himself around her, and she shivers as his breath ghosts her neck. She feels her eyes sting, tears brimming in the corners, because all this time…she’d thought he’d forgotten her.</p><p>“You’re…you’re really here,” he murmurs, and she nods against his chest, the tension in her shoulders slowly chipped away by his gentle firebender’s warmth.</p><p>Any words she can think of die in her throat because <em>yes, </em>it’s been eight years since she last saw him, but she remembers everything. Every word, every feeling, every touch and every promise.</p><p>She pulls away to cup his cheeks, her hands shaking as runs her thumbs over his sharp cheekbones. He flinches as her thumb traces the edge of his scar, hands clenching in her hoodie. She stops, but he gives her a nod, breathes out sharply as her thumb runs across the ridged skin.</p><p>“You…you’re…you’re so grown up,” she murmurs, tracing lines on his cheeks with her thumbs, taking in the angles of his face with her eyes. She had always known he was alive – Azula had told her years ago, shown her a picture that their Uncle had posted on Facebook - but it hadn’t prepared her for this. For really seeing him, face to face.</p><p>“Yeah,” he rasps. One of his hands wanders up, ghosts over the tips of her hair.” And you…you cut your hair.”</p><p>“I did,” she says with a wry chuckle. Fondness blooms in her chest at his awkward, stilted compliment – Agni, how was he still so awkward, after all these years?</p><p>The thought flies from her minds as he tips their foreheads together. She’s speechless, brain short-circuiting at just this slight touch.</p><p>It’s electrifying.</p><p>Finally, she opens her mouth again, the tips of their noses touching.” I…I didn’t think you were going to come back.”</p><p>“I know,” he says.” I’m sorry, Mai, I’m <em>so</em> sorry.”</p><p>She pulls back to look up at him again – she can’t stop doing that, he’s so different, and yet he’s the same.</p><p>“You’re here now,” she says simply, and it’s more complicated than that, but complicated isn’t what she wants right now. And, truth be told, she simply doesn’t <em>care</em>.” That’s enough.”</p><p>He huffs, and cups her cheek gingerly, as if he’s not sure of what he’s doing. She leans into his touch, eyes fluttering as a butterfly dances in her stomach. She feels herself rock forward, and after a moment he’s all that’s holding her up.</p><p>There’s a flash on her eyelids, and the entire world shakes as thunder roars. She startles, somehow managing to clutch even closer to Zuko. As the thunder passes, she turns and stares up at him; their cheeks flush in unison, and she's suddenly hyperaware of how close they are. They step away from each other with a nervous chuckle. He rubs at the back of his neck and glances out the window, an awkward smile stretched on his face.</p><p>“Where are you heading?” he finally asks, nodding at her backpack.</p><p>“I’m…moving,” she says. She looks down, scuffs her feet. It’s the truth, technically.</p><p>“Really? Where? Do you…do you need somewhere to stay?” His brow furrows as he steps closer, and she can’t help but smile. Even after so long, he’s still worried about her. It makes her think of Ty Lee. She’d called a dozen people, and Ty Lee had been the last – just a flash of thought as she exhausted all her options - but somehow, even after three and a half years, the acrobat was still willing to welcome her in with open arms.</p><p>“Actually, I’m going to stay with Ty Lee. In Ba Sing Se.”</p><p>Zuko’s eyes light up.” You’re…you’re kidding. That’s…I’m going there, too!” Her heart is beating out of her chest and she has to pinch herself to make sure she isn’t dreaming.</p><p>“Isn’t that where your uncle lives? Do you live with him?”</p><p>“It is, but I live with some friends. We’re all going to BSSU,” he explains. He takes another step, and she feels herself do the same.</p><p>She hasn’t seen him in so long, and common sense dictates she should be more cautious, because it’s been years, and she has no idea if he’s still <em>really</em> the same old Zuko, if he still feels the same way he did back then. But she’d just been in his arms a moment ago, and for some reason, for some inexplicable reason...she already misses that feeling.</p><p>He continues after a moment,” When, uh, when’s your train?”</p><p>She has to pull out her ticket to confirm.” Seven-thirty to the airport. Then a flight to Kyoshi at ten.”</p><p>“Holy shit,” he breathes, and her eyes widen. No, there’s no way…” I think I have the same train and the same flight.”</p><p>Sure enough, they do, and she bites down on the inside of her cheek, trying to resist the urge to jump him. It’s all so much, in such a short time. He’s alive, he’s here, and they’re going to the same place.</p><p>It’s only been a few minutes and she already feels like she’s twelve again, awkward and shy and nervous.</p><p>Mai can’t stop staring at him, at his beautiful face – the scar was new, and it terrified her because she could tell it was a handprint and there was only one person in the world who could get away with it, but it’s striking, and jarring, and on him, it’s <em>breathtaking</em> in all the right ways.</p><p>She gestures to the bench behind them, and he nods. They set their bags down and stretch out on the bench, a careful distance away from each other. They’re close enough that their knees knock together when Zuko splays his legs out comfortably, but there’s still a little gulf between them, a gulf that’s far too wide for her liking.</p><p>She glances up, trying to sneak a glance at him, only to find he's already gazing at her. She looks away, her cheeks flaring as a small smile crosses her lips.  When she finally looks back, she manages to hold his gaze. He holds up his arm, a silent question passing the short distance between them.</p><p>She smiles, and her heart thunders as she wraps herself around his side, head tucked against his shoulder.</p><p>It’s been a long, long time since everything has been okay, but somehow it’s here, in this place in between, where reality feels all wrong, that she finally feels so, so right.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This story was inspired by two things: lo-fi music mixes on YouTube, and the idea of 'junkspaces' or 'non-spaces'. </p><p>This is a concept that basically says, as humankind spreads and grows, we necessarily create places that don't have an identity themselves. They're just an in-between; they fulfill a specific need, and that's it. Places like gas stations, airports, train/metro stations, malls, places where you just feel sort of...off. You just feel like an 'urban sadness' that you can't describe. It happens randomly, not constantly. Maybe one day you're waiting for a train to work or school, the next you're buying a coffee at 2 AM from a gas station just off the highway.</p><p>I've been working on this for about 2.5 months or so. I originally wrote most of it on OneNote, lying awake late one night, in a flash of inspiration. I might make more with this AU - not really sure. I've got a shit ton of other things I want to do, and I'd like to get those done first. But we'll see. Modern AU Avatar really intrigues me.</p><p>Anyways, I really hope you enjoyed this. Leave a kudos or a comment, any feedback at all is appreciated! Stay safe out there, my dudes.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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